That said, they are in a difficult situation: they've been enormously successful, and have to work both to maintain their audience and to build it. Their strategy now is to leapfrog it, releasing a sequel (or prequel or related film or whatever) one year and then an original film the next. The sequels will draw crowds who love the originals (and with any luck will also be good), and the originals will hopefully draw people both on the strength of Pixar's reputation and out of interest in the film itself.

Anyway, it's definitely to their credit that Pixar is a studio that has (at least until recently, and maybe still is) been so consistently successful that people will see a movie for the studio rather than for a star or for the branding of the film itself!

I strongly believe that Dreamworks and Disney had some kind of weird, clandestine meet up a few years ago and decided to pull the mother of all scams on the American public by getting them to pay for the same movie twice.

How else to explain the existence of TURBO and PLANES? Anyone who can convince me that they aren't somehow the same movie just might be entitled to a steak dinner.

Apparently Planes was going to be a straight-to-DVD release, but it changed to a theatrical release. Yeah, it's just Disney capitalizing on the success of the Cars franchise (the good at best, tolerable at worst first film and the dreadful second film). Second, I've pretty much heard only positive reviews for Monsters U. I still haven't seen Brave, which I hear was OK overall, but I hope Pixar gets their charm back. I'll come back into the Pixar fold for sure if they release an Incredibles 2.

I enjoyed Monsters University...I don't think it's on a par with the original, but enjoyed it nonetheless....but I couldn't help but feel...preached at...I didn't go to be preached at - I went to be entertained...but a perfectly enjoyable movie anyway.

Pixar recently announced their new production schedule, and that they will be releasing: 1 new ORIGINAL movie every year 1 new sequel every two years

They've released only one movie a year for so long, so it won't be long before the sequels stop taking over one of those spots.

Only time will tell if the additional workload will affect the quality of the films.

For what it's worth, with the exception of the two Cars movies (and maybe A Bug's Life) all of Pixar's movies (including sequels) have been very good. I'd recommend seeing Brave and Monsters University prior to passing judgment based on the trailers. The preview for Brave is really not representative at all of what the movie is about.

Monsters U is probably not as "substantial" as many of Pixar's originals such as Wall-E, Ratatouille, etc. - although there wasn't a lot in the way of substance to its predecessor Monsters Inc either - but it's FUN - a loving take on the genre that includes movies like Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds - and it doesn't sink to lowest common denominator fart jokes or sneaky "adult jokes" like a Shrek or other movies or that ilk.

It was really the unexpected multi-billion merchandising windfall generated by the first Cars that changed Pixar, and not for the better...why else did they make a sequel to their most poorly-reviewed (at the time) film? And while I actually liked Monsters University, it felt like more of a contractual obligation than something anyone involved was really passionate about. And Finding Dory? Ugh. I hope the studio gets the sequel bug out of their system eventually and starts churning out originals again.

For what it's worth, with the exception of the two Cars movies (and maybe A Bug's Life) all of Pixar's movies (including sequels) have been very good. I'd recommend seeing Brave and Monsters University prior to passing judgment based on the trailers. The preview for Brave is really not representative at all of what the movie is about.

I pass judgment more on whether they will get me to part with a sawbuck, based on the trailers.

I'll wait for the dvd to come out of MU, then wait for the dvd to appear in my local library.

I saw BRAVE as my last-ditch effort to support the studio, and found it wanting somehow. I also felt tossed around like someone on a rollercoaster.